Skip to main content
Dessert

Bisque Ice Cream

A chilled dessert made with cream, sugar, vanilla, and crushed ladyfingers, macaroons, and kisses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Bisque Ice Cream

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Bisque Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crumbs

  1. Crush the kisses, lady fingers, and macaroons very fine.

  2. Sift the crushed items through a sieve.

Make the base

  1. Heat 1 quart of cream in a double boiler.

  2. Add the sugar to the heated cream and stir until dissolved.

  3. Remove the mixture from heat.

  4. Cool the mixture.

  5. Add the remaining cream to the cooled mixture.

  6. Place the mixture in the freezer.

Freeze and finish

  1. When the mixture is nearly stiff, stir in the sifted cakes and vanilla.

  2. For a richer color, add 2 teaspoons of caramel.

  3. Beat the mixture until smooth.

  4. Follow directions for freezing and packing.

  5. Let the cream stand for at least 2 hours before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides richness and fat, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy body.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer and scoopable.
Macaroons
Crushed into fine crumbs, they add almond-like flavour and body to the base.
Lady fingers
Crushed into crumbs, they add sponge texture and flavour to the frozen custard.
Kisses
Crushed into crumbs, they add sweetness and a toasted, confectionery flavour.

The step that matters

Beating the mixture until nearly stiff before adding the crumbs. Adding crumbs too early, or freezing without beating, lets large ice crystals form and the crumbs sink. Beating to a smooth, nearly frozen texture keeps the ice cream creamy and evenly mixed.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes